


The Cruel Sister

by Amius_Malen



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Night Terrors, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Spoilers Through Sophmore Year, The things one would expect from an Aelwyn Centric Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23628973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amius_Malen/pseuds/Amius_Malen
Summary: She felt something, for the first time since recovering her mind. It hurt, she couldn’t put a name to the pain that coursed from her heart outward, she just hid from it. She felt her body, put into stark reality by whatever she felt as she stared at Adine's trapped form. Mother left to perform the ritual, and father was gathering himself to fix Adine, so the sisters were left alone together.
Relationships: Adine Abernant & Aelwyn Abernant
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	The Cruel Sister

**Author's Note:**

> I hadn't planned to do any writing about the finale, but after crying my eyes out over the entire scene with Adine and Aelwyn my resolve crumbled. Quarantine is as quarantine does. As a slight warning, this is a recapping of that scene from within Aelwyn's mind. As such it is told from the perspective of someone who has spent most of her life repressing emotion and disassociating. In Short, it will be odd. I look forward to feedback, on content or writing style or just about anything else.

Aelwyn felt empty. It wasn’t a foreign sensation to her, not in the least, but it was much more persistent now. She had found her mother, Kalina was guiding them, they had the devil, the sacrifice, and the moss. None of this helped. Not that she had particularly expected it to.

What was truly strange, and almost bordering on worrying, was how none of the things that normally brought her back to herself had worked. She had been amazing. She bested months of elven torture, restoring herself and all of her faculties. That alone should have had her giddy with pride, fondly anticipating telling father how clever she had been, not that she would. But she just felt empty. Tired in an odd way that stretched beyond her aching body.

She had so easily tricked Adine and her friends, deftly retrieving the gem and teleporting to her mother’s side. This should have made her feel unstoppable, fondly anticipating telling mother how powerful she had been, not that she could. But she just felt empty. Empty and alone.

She woke the first morning within the Forest of the Nightmare king like she did most mornings, as quietly as she could. She held her screams, slowed her manic heartbeat, and regulated her breathing. A quick cantrip and the cold sweat was gone. 

She was maybe 7 when she first had one of the dreams, all she could remember about it was the terror of it. It crushed in upon her, inescapable. She ran screaming to her parents, who had the good sense to tell her that it was just a bad dream, and that she had best get over it. “Bad dreams do not an Abernant make” her father had said, before dismissing her. So she did, the dreams didn’t stop, but no one could know that.

She didn’t stop feeling empty when they reached the tree in the center of the forest, nor when Angwyn joined them. Kalina warned them that Adine and her friends were following them, and still Aelwyn felt nothing. Nothing until they summoned Adine, and trapped her.

She felt something, for the first time since recovering her mind. It hurt, she couldn’t put a name to the pain that coursed from her heart outward, she just hid from it. She felt her body, put into stark reality by whatever she felt as she stared at Adine's trapped form. Mother left to perform the ritual, and father was gathering himself to fix Adine, so the sisters were left alone together.

They messaged, and she tried so hard to find that emptiness, pulling herself behind the love she had worked her whole life to earn from her parents. She loved them, they meant well for her, they loved her, she had earn- “Aelwyn, I don’t love our parents, but despite the fact that you have not earned it, I do love you. Do you hear that? I hope you hear that.”

It cut through her sharper than any blade, ripping past the comforting ennui and carving feeling into her. It was agony, so she ran. She ran as far into herself as she could, desperately hunting for a place Adine's words, her love, couldn’t go. There wasn’t one. She cried, because she just had to. Feelings so long unused they had rotted were brought achingly to life. Guilt, Regret, Shame, Sadness, Loneliness, all pulling themselves from where she had so desperately hidden them. They burned her clean.

Angwyn made his way back over, and told her to scour the information he wanted from Adine. Then he threatened her, and Aelwyn felt more. This time she felt Hate, and Rage, and a protective urge her body remembered far better than her mind could.  
“Em, Father, as much as I would love to see Adine suffer, she’s… Once we have the information from her lets leave her in the orb, that’s what she’s most scared of.” This time the hate turned inward, where it had always burned brightest. What the hell was that? All she could bring herself to do was tepidly try to tell her father not to destroy Adine? After everything?  
“Aelwyn, you’ve been given an order, carry it out.” she felt her feelings pulling back, as they had always done when she was given an order.  
“Right, but, um-”  
“Aelwyn, Now is not the time to lose your nerve, Do it.” She froze, trapped under the weight of her father’s quiet anger, his loveless voice. She just trembled.  
“I’m here with you. I’m with you. Whatever you decide to do I’m with you.” Her gaze flew to Adine, floating there, helpless and so much stronger than Aelwyn had felt in so very long.  
“F-Father, I, Adine’s just, sh-she’s a baby. She-she’s a-”  
“A Baby?”  
“No I mean, uh, She’s a, She’s young. There's no…” Her father just looked at her, and raised his hand, and the fight died in her like he had snuffed it. She turned back to Adine, and whispered “I’m so sorry” before reaching into her thoughts. 

She Stood in Adine’s childhood bedroom, Adine by her side. They watched as Adine had her first panic attack. They were only children then, and all she knew was that Adine was being strange. So she got their parents. She was afraid for her sister, but her parents told her it was just because Adine wasn’t strong like she was, and she had learned to agree with them, above all else. The memory ended and the sisters walked to the next room, and the next, and the next. They carried out in painfully cyclical patterns, Adine in pain, and Aelwyn burying herself so she wouldn’t be.  
“Well if you’re trying to humiliate me, I suppose it's working” she said turning to face Adine, unable to bring herself to push any deeper with the spell.  
“I’m not, we can make new memories, but these are all the memories that I have of you, these are the best memories that I have of you! We will live immortal lives, do we want to keep playing these patterns out? I don’t want to. “ Aelwyn felt her sister's words pulling back those feelings, and she turned away, moving to face a window in the endless hallway of rooms. She saw something she couldn't remember, distant, and frightening. Adine let her go to it. She saw herself, broken and hollow, being cradled in Adine’s arms. Held so lovingly in the Lomenelda hot spring.   
“They broke you, Aelwyn. They broke you. For what? For why? They’re cruel people, and I’m sorry but I don’t think that they will ever love you. And they’ll never even let you make your own decisions, you’re just a tool to them, and they’ll only keep you around as long as you’re useful.” Aelwyn couldn’t pull her eyes from the memory, as the sisters followed Adine’s memory into her shattered consciousness.

She looked around her and saw a wasteland, all the pieces of who she was laid bare and broken around her. All of the things she hid from herself laid naked before her eyes.  
“Look at these ruins, look, there was no rebuilding this.” It hurt. Deeper and harder than anything had in a very long time. She saw her cowardice, scattered at her feet. She saw a self-loathing so deep it laced every part of her. She saw it all, and Adine saw it all. It was all just mistakes, needless cruelty, and wasted time. She looked up to Adine, and felt her tears falling.  
“Will you be my big sister? I would really really love to have you as a big sister.” Those words broke her, and she lost hold of her spell. Her father turned to her, asked her something, and she blubbered a response.

She felt more emotions. Protectiveness, Love, and Anger in equal parts. Angwyn approached Adine, approached her sister. Angwyn raised his hand to hurt the only person Aelwyn truly loved. He wanted to destroy her fucking sister, and she would die before she let him.

Magic flew. Adine was free. And as the lightning coursed through her body, she felt happy.


End file.
